QLED Televisions

Should I buy a Samsung QLED TV? Samsung's latest television acronym explained

QLED: a genuine step forward in TVs, or another marketing acronym?

Technically
speaking, Samsung's QLED TVs are not QLED at all, well, at least in the
way that we understand the term. A 'proper' quantum light-emitting diode
element emits its own light – the clue is in the name – whereas
Samsung's latest TVs use a separate LCD backlight (and an edge-lit
backlight, at that) just like any other LED-LCD TV. So where the QLED
moniker comes from, we're not sure.

It's a
bit of an enigma, to put it lightly. Literally QLED means – or we
suppose it means – quantum dot light-emitting diode (QLED, not to be
confused with OLED TVs),
but this Samsung-baked concept is basically just the latest set of
enhancements to the same quantum dot technology that the company has
been working on for the past few years.

In Spring 2017 Samsung launched its new so-called QLED TV
series – the Q9, Q8, and Q7 Series – which are armed with metal quantum
dots, better viewing angles and deeper black levels. They claim to be
the only TVs that can show 100% colour volume and are up to twice as bright as Samsung's 2016 SUHD TVs with a peak brightness of 1,500 to 2,000 nits.

But
it seems like every year, TV manufacturers make the claim that last
year’s TVs were generally OK, but this year’s TVs are the best thing
ever made. It’s confusing at times, and downright disheartening, too.

Here’s what we want to know: Is this a 'major paradigm
shift in the visual display industry', as claimed by Samsung's President
of the Visual Display Business, HyunSuk Kim, or just Samsung's attempt
to wrest back some momentum since Sony embraced OLED TVs?

With
all other major TV brands going to OLED in 2017, can Samsung stand
alone in breathing new life into ageing LCD TV tech? And, moreover, what
if, anything, does QLED even mean? Let's explore the TV technology
together.

What is QLED?

It's a bit of an enigma, to put it lightly. Literally QLED
means – or we suppose it means – quantum dot light-emitting diode (QLED,
not to be confused with OLED TVs),
but this Samsung-baked concept is basically just the latest set of
enhancements to the same quantum dot technology that the company has
been working on for the past few years.

Technically
speaking, Samsung's QLED TVs are not QLED at all, well, at least in the
way that we understand the term. A 'proper' quantum light-emitting diode
element emits its own light – the clue is in the name – whereas
Samsung's latest TVs use a separate LCD backlight (and an edge-lit
backlight, at that) just like any other LED-LCD TV. So where the QLED
moniker comes from, we're not sure.

How does a QLED TV work?

It’s
complicated, but hang in there with us. So, to start, all QLED TVs have
a quantum dot filter. This year, there’s a new refined aluminium
compound that help make the dots more efficient (and therefore brighter)
and more effective at passing pass light through, which creates wider
and more accurate colour.

So what is a quantum dot
filter exactly? It’s a film of tiny crystal semi-conductor particles
that can be precisely controlled for their colour output, which replace
the red, green and blue colour filters that old TVs used.

Samsung
says that its QLED TVs use the new filters to display 100% coverage of
the DCI/P3 color space (read: much deeper black levels and sparklingHDR), and maintain that performance whatever the brightness.

They’re
so bright, in fact, that Samsung's QLED TVs can manage anywhere between
1500 nits to 2000 nits brightness. Considering 1000 nits is needed to
produce HDR, that's proper bright, though exactly how anyone could stand
the glare of 2000 nits, we're not sure. Sunglasses, anyone?

While
the advances in brightness are intriguing, Samsung claims that the new
QLED TVs have a newly designed pixel panel structure to allow better
off-axis viewing. For a living room environment, that could be QLED's
big selling point.

QLED vs LED

Beyond the 'paradigm
shift' hyperbole of Samsung's marketing, it's really important to
understand that QLED isn't really anything new at all. In fact, it's
really nothing more than the latest – possibly among the last
technically possible – tweaks to existing LED-LCD technology that's
dominated bigscreen TVs for the last decade.

QLED's
innovations – deeper blacks, better colours and wider viewing angles –
tackle three traditional problems of LED and LCD technology, but they're
the same problems that are addressed year in, year out by TV makers.
Only upcoming reviews will reveal if, in fact, QLED is a significant
step forward from traditional LED-LCD screens – but chances are good
that we'll see some real improvements in these areas with Samsung's new
sets.

QLED vs OLED

Perhaps a more important comparison is QLED vsOLED.
The latter uses pixels that emit their own light, but OLED displays are
manufactured only by Samsung's arch-rival LG, and now used bySony,Philips andPanasonic, too.

There's
no doubt that QLED, for now, has an advantage in terms of brightness
(so in theory may better handle HDR content – though might just as
easily overcook it), but if you're looking for a 'paradigm shift' in
picture quality and the next-gen display technology, OLED is still the
frontrunner. The latter uses individually lit pixels to achieve better
contrast ratio and richer blacks that LED-LCD will never be able to hit,
quantum dot filter or no.

What happened to SUHD?

QLED andSUHD
are essentially the same thing; the new messaging is more about
marketing than technology, although the jump from 1000 nits on the
top-end SUHD TVs to 1,500 to 2,000 nits on the flagship QLED TVs is
perhaps more revolutionary than it seems at first. Put simply, for a
buying public still getting to grips with what UHD is, SUHD just proved
too confusing, so Samsung has dropped it. (It also probably didn't help
that the 'S' in SUHD didn't really mean anything ... although we're not
convinced that QLED is much clearer.)

Should I buy a QLED TV?

Samsung's
QLED TVs are claimed to be all about the brightest possible, most
accurate coloured images pictures, which therefore work with all kinds
of content in all kinds of lighting conditions. Although we can't yet
confirm Samsung's claims that its QLED TVs are the brightest and best
around – our upcoming reviews will confirm or deny that – they do appear
to be as much about design and flexibility of installation as about
picture quality.

That all seems a decent package for the
living room, but whether you should buy a QLED TV will ultimately come
down to price. And here comes the crux of the matter; will QLED TVs be
cheaper than OLED TVs? They may need to be to stand a chance, but is
Samsung really going to make itself a cut-price brand? We seriously
doubt it. Expect oodles of marketing that make QLED seem a better option
than OLED, though whether it is or not, only time will tell.